Humor Prism in 20th Century American Society

If an item you ordered from TextbookRush does not meet your expectations due to an error on our part, simply fill out a return request and then return it by mail within 30 days of ordering it for a full refund of item cost.

Description: Why do some jokes evaporate after the telling while others are transmitted to subsequent generations? Just what property of humor allows it to touch diverse members of a culture at a given time? As a penetrating and refracting angle of history,More...

Why do some jokes evaporate after the telling while others are transmitted to subsequent generations? Just what property of humor allows it to touch diverse members of a culture at a given time? As a penetrating and refracting angle of history, humor illuminates the expectations and contradictions of society, its anxieties and confusions, and permits perspective into any historic moment. The Humor Prism in Twentieth-Century America explores to what extent and in what ways American humor in the twentieth century reflects history, examining the dynamics and disguised messages behind humor. The first section of this volume concentrates on patterns of humor in the twentieth century. Section two looks at the power and politics of women's humor, and at multicultural humor. The final section presents and evaluates the major joke cycles from the post-World War II period to the 1990s as responses to profound social and economic change, such as Polish jokes and JAP jokes.

Preface

History and Humor

What Makes People Laugh?: Cracking the Cultural Code

The Great American Joke

Our Native Humor

Entropy and Transformation: Two Types of American Humor

American Political Humor: Touchables and Taboos

The Standup Comedian as Anthropologist: Intentional Culture Critic

The Urban Landscape

Saloons and Burlesques

The People of the Joke: On the Conceptualization of a Jewish Humor

African-American Humor: Resistance and Retaliation

Why Are These Women Laughing? The Power and Politics of Women's Humor

A Rose by Any Other Name ... The Occasional Doo-Dah Parade

The Giant and the Child: "Cruel" Humor in American Culture

The Helen Keller Joke Cycle

Racial Riddles and the Polack Joke

The J.A.P. and the J.A.M. in American Jokelore

Many Hands Make Light Work or Caught in the Act of Screwing in Light Bulbs

*A minimum purchase of $35 is required. Shipping is provided via FedEx SmartPost®
and FedEx Express Saver®. Average delivery time is 1 – 5 business days, but
is not guaranteed in that timeframe. Also allow 1 - 2 days for processing. Free shipping is eligible only in the continental United States and excludes
Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico. FedEx service marks used by permission."Marketplace"
orders are not eligible for free or discounted shipping.